China Trip 1: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La (reposted with pics)

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fountainhall

China Trip 1: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La (reposted with pics)

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Aussie has given us excellent reports of his trip to Nanjing and Shanghai. With China being so vast and with so many more international gateways now opened for air travel, short – or long – trips are increasingly possible at reasonable expense.

I have made dozens of trips to China, most to Shanghai and Beijing. But in recent years I have started taking vacations in other parts of China which have proved fascinating. So I thought it might be an idea to follow up aussie’s superb posts with some outlining other ideas for visits to China. There are now non-stop flights from Bangkok to many of China’s cities and one-stops to dozens more. So this will be the first of five reports highlighting possibilities that can be made on their own, as stop-overs on long flights or in conjunction with visits to the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Note, though, that most require you to get a visa in advance as the visa-free entry is presently restricted to just a few cities. Only holders of the APEC Business Travel card qualify for full visa free travel.

One trip combines Beijing with the amazing Ica and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin in the far north-east; others to Xi’an with its famous terracotta army; Chengdu with the Panda Reserve and a two-night side trip 240 kms away to the National Park in Jiuzhaigou; Shanghai and Suzhou, the ancient garden city on the Grand Canal where silk has been manufactured for centuries, and I’ll start with my most recent trip to the closest province to Bangkok in western China, Yunnan.

There are now at least four non-stop flights each day including Thai Air Asia with flight times under 2 hours 30 minutes. I used miles on Cathay Pacific and so spent a couple of nights in Hong Kong first before taking a Dragonair (now renamed Cathay Dragon) flight to Kunming. Once through immigration and customs I connected with a short flight east to Dali.

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You can easily do that last sector by road but I wanted to get to my first destination before nightfall, for I was staying about 20 minutes outside Dali city in Xizhou Town since most of the main sights are not in the city itself.

The Sky Valley Heritage Boutique Hotel is a lovingly restored Chinese double courtyard home with rooms on two floors and bisected by a small reception area in the centre. I really loved it, the more so as it was virtually in the countryside known to be one of the bread baskets of the country. But it meant either eating in the hotel restaurant (which was excellent if a little pricey) or just one other nearby. So 2 nights was ideal.

The Sky Valley Heritage Boutique Hotel Reception
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The Hotel lit at Night
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Dali is situated on a large lake. I spent part of my first day walking down through the fields to near the lakeside (it was further than I expected and so I didn’t quite make it). I also wandered back into the town where it was market day to see a fascinating, small old walled town.

Street Scenes
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Backtracking to Dali the following day there is another, larger and more atmospheric old town – which I skipped as there is an even more famous one on my next stop – and a park with the famous Three Pagodas Temple.

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From Dali I took one of the regular half hour bus departures climbing north up the plateau to Lijiang with its much more famous and impressive old town. Lijiang city has more than 1.2 million inhabitants and staying close to the old town, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a must if you have limited time. Thanks again to points, I had booked into the Crowne Plaza located right at the edge with its own private entrance. By the time I arrived it had been upgraded to an Intercontinental with lovely large rooms arranged in villas set in neat little terraces behind the main hotel block.

The Southern Silk Road started in Myanmar and passed through Lijiang. So trade was a key to its development. The world famous Old Town with its narrow cobblestone alleys, streams and little shops and restaurants covers more than 7 sq. kms and dates back some 800 years. It’s all rather like a maze and not difficult to get lost. Within the Town is Lion’s Hill – well worth the trek up as it gives you rooftop views of the entire Old Town as well as some of the new city.

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Some of the Old Town had to be reconstructed after a major earthquake in 1996 and three is a slight Disney-esque feel to those parts. But it is difficult not to enjoy just wandering around, people watching – lots of students when I was there – enjoying some Chinese tea or coffee and tasty Chinese snacks. I just managed to catch this cute guy. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get him in focus but he was typical of many of the young guys wandering around when I was there – most Chinese but also some Japanese. Sadly most were with girlfriends!

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About 500 meters south of the Old Town is a lovely park with a lake, typical Chinese bridges and pavilions, all set against the magisterial Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

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This part of China is where the Yunnan Plateau and the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau meet. So there are mountains and mountain ranges everywhere. The 4-hour bus journey further north to Shangri-La takes you over a couple of narrow passes with buses inevitably grinding to a halt when a vehicle breaks down or there is an accident up ahead. That happened twice on my trip, but no-one appeared concerned. We still made it into the bus station at Shangri-La more or less on time.

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Shangri-La is nothing like the location of James Hilton’s novel of the same name. That was in Tibet. The Chinese Shangri-La was known as Zhongdian until 2001 when some bright spark in the city authority decided to give it a more intriguing name. The city itself looked mostly new and incredibly boring. But it was not the city I had come to see. Shangri-La is only about 150 kms from Tibet and home to many Tibetans. It is also famous for having several major Tibetan monasteries nearby. The most impressive by far – often called the most spectacular of any Tibetan monastery outside Lhasa – is a 15-minute taxi ride to the north.

Your first sight of the Ganden Sumsteling Monastery (sometimes called Songzanlin) will quite literally take your breath away. It was built during the age of the 5th Dalai Lama in 1758 and modeled after the Potiala Palace. Now home to around 700 monks, it soars over a small village, three separate halls all with golden roofs glistening in the sunlight.

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I could not believe I would be spending three nights at the Songstam Retreat Hotel situated just a short distance behind the monastery. One of several Songstam properties in this region, the Lodge is isolated, a series of low-rise stone buildings set on a hillside. Rooms are furnished in Tibetan style but with lots of mod-cons. Ginger tea and cookies are replenished several times a day. The restaurant serves an excellent buffet breakfast and wonderful Tibetan, Chinese and western dishes for lunch and dinner. I thought the lemon chicken was finer than any I had ever tasted during decades in Hong Kong. The hotel organizes a series of hikes, bike tours and visits to nearby sights, but I was happy just staying put and exploring the monastery and nearby villages. I adored sitting on my small terrace sipping tea, totally unable to take my eyes of the monastery.

The Sonstam Retreat behind the Monastery
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The Lodge is located at 3,300 m. above sea level. There are flights to the nearby airport from various parts of China. So if you connect on the same day from Bangkok, you will need to spend a day taking things very slowly. Certainly you wouldn’t want to climb the very long flight of steps up to the monastery. That was one reason for my spending 2 days each in Dali (2,000 m.) and Lijiang (2,400 m.) beforehand so I was thoroughly acclimatised.

I did not meet up with any guys on those first three stops. I was too busy sightseeing, and with the monastery being in a special gated park locals from the nearby city could not gain access. But my goal for this part of the trip was only being a tourist. On my return to Bangkok, I had 24 hours in Kunming, a city I had not realised has over 4 million inhabitants. Arriving at the Crowne Plaza around 2:00pm I switched on my iPad. As happens in so many parts of Asia, the apps quickly became active. I was especially interested in one bespectacled student who was interested in meeting up. It took some time, but he eventually came over to the hotel and we had a lovely evening.

I arranged this trip myself, largely because I could offset some of the costs with miles and hotel points. Even though it was off-season just after Chinese New Year, the weather was warm and pleasant and I got a special 2 nights for the price of 3 at the lovely Songstam Retreat. Even if I had had to pay full price, Shangri La was the highlight of the trip and I would not have missed it.
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